Anti-Student News
Anti-student news roundup: On the News letters page Peter Davis compares porch couches to weeds on a lawn that would also be out of place in a nice suburban town like A2. “Why must Ann Arbor have the ugliest off-campus student housing area in the country?” he asks.
And the Old Fourth Ward again raises concerns about the new dorm and its potential to bring student cars into their area. The News surveyed 36 students and found one who both lived in a dorm on central campus and owned a car.
36 students gives you a 16% margin of error. First off, that’s a bad sample.
1/36 is 2.7777% of students. Assume the ‘worst’ at 480 students. That’s 13(.3333) students that would, according to that survey, own a car and live in the new dorm. 13 new cars. Oh, the horror. The end of the Manhattan universe (couldn’t resist).
From the 2nd article: “While U-M is adding parking structures around its downtown campus, none is for the new residence hall.” According to the News’ numbers, I doubt 13 spots will be that huge of a concern.
I do applaud AA for wanting to improve the bus system. CATA, the bus system in Lansing/East Lansing, is an excellent service and you really don’t get a lot of students driving to class all the time. That’s not to say there’s not one, but the numbers are low. Buses run to every dorm, they run to every primary classroom building and get damn close to the others.
posted by Big John MSU on November 25th, 2005 at 3:10 pmSorry, forgot to include adjust for error in the previous comment. Assuming 16% in the wrong way, you get 19.4444%. That’s 93(.3333) students. So there, maybe I can see the concern.
posted by Big John MSU on November 25th, 2005 at 3:13 pmI kind of like the letter about “Turkey’s Revenge” that follows the anti-couch tirade.
posted by OFWinsurgent on November 25th, 2005 at 5:20 pmAfter just driving through the Boston U student housing on the way back to the in-laws, I have to say that the student housing there is just as ugly as in A^2.
posted by jhallum on November 25th, 2005 at 5:36 pmPersonally, I think most weeds are a lot more interesting (and often more useful) than manicured lawns. I guess I’d rather live with interesting “nuisances” than unimaginative, oppressive conformity.
posted by Sandy on November 25th, 2005 at 5:59 pmdid somebody say weed?
posted by Real Big on November 25th, 2005 at 6:48 pmThe COUNTRY? He must not get to very many places…not that things can’t get messy (mostly I’m bothered by trash, which even your average nitwi–uh, your average struggling student ought to be able to pick up–I don’t care about couches. Back when I was a student, I had plenty of couches, and I picked up my trash. You should too.)
As for the OFW, I can’t see how the parking could be any worse, but yeah, it couldn’t hurt if the U. built a lot or a structure nearby.
posted by Mike on November 25th, 2005 at 10:40 pmhe obviously hasnt been to many student housing areas. columbus springs to mind as being much, much uglier than ann arbor.
posted by katie on November 26th, 2005 at 12:26 amMike, what a great idea! Why don’t why we just ask the University to build a parking structure!
hahahahahahahaha.
posted by OFWinsurgent on November 26th, 2005 at 10:55 amWhat Sandy said.
(Imaginative of me, no?)
posted by Dave on November 26th, 2005 at 1:03 pm“Buses run to every dorm, they run to every primary classroom building and get damn close to the others.”
I’m sitting in East Lansing’s Espresso Royale right now, and uh, the fact that the campus is so poorly designed and suburban that folks need to take buses from the dorm to their classroom buildings is a little disturbing. In Ann Arbor we have an even better solution: something called walking [okay, so I’m not including North Campus].
posted by Brandon on November 26th, 2005 at 3:35 pmThe student car thing is a silly concern — when the new dorm is completed, I understand that the U is then planning to close and rehab the older central campus dorms one after another. If that’s the case, it’s going to be many YEARS (maybe even a decade) before the work is finished and the number of active dorm rooms actually increases. And that’s assuming the capacity of the older dorms doesn’t decrease when they put in all the 21st century amenities.
posted by mw on November 26th, 2005 at 5:31 pmBrandon, my point was: there is a bus system in place if you want it. I’m sorry but given the option of busing to my 8am across campus (quite literally, Akers to Brody) or walking it… guess what I’ll choose? Call me lazy, I really don’t care. Gives me extra time in the morning that I need.
Campus isn’t “poorly designed”. It’s evolved over time. Certain buildings haven’t been able to have been built where they might fit better. You can walk to a lot of places but the bus sure helps you get from point A to point B a lot faster and more efficiently.
posted by Big John MSU on November 26th, 2005 at 5:54 pmYou may be right, MSU campus isn’t poorly designed - I doubt it was designed at all. Saying it has “evolved over time” or that buildings weren’t “built where they might fit better” is waaaaaay too glass half full always look on the bright side talk. Saying that campus has sprawled out like a Midwestern suburb over the past decades is much more realistic.
Buses are ungodly slow. You wait. You ride. You make stops. You finally reach your destination. If you have a campus where points A and B are so far apart that it is faster to take the bus instead of walking, than you have a poor(ly designed) campus.
posted by FAA on November 26th, 2005 at 7:27 pmOf all the things, it’s the porch couch that make the student area look like a ghetto. He forgot to mention the houses that haven’t been painted in years, broken windows, cracked sidewalks, etc. But I guess those things are all student’s fault, right?
posted by Kozzie on November 26th, 2005 at 9:39 pm… and the 8 bedroom/$4800 per month places are just there to make the ghetto seem expensive and classy…
I was able to spend a few hours in Ann Arbor this week. What are those buildings going up near State and Huron?
posted by A Different Jon on November 27th, 2005 at 4:55 amYou mean east of there? That’s the UM’s Life Sciences complex… it’s gonna, uh, you know, like catalyze innovation and jobs for the 21st Century and stuff… and like, put Michigan on the cutting edge. And such.
posted by Brandon on November 27th, 2005 at 1:23 pmHe means the building between Corner House and the MLB. It’s going to house a couple UM programs.
posted by Dale on November 27th, 2005 at 2:18 pmNorth Campus is not all that bad. There’s on-campus housing for probably 2000 students within walking distance of campus, plus the student co-ops and various apartment complexes. (Long) walking or short biking distance to Kroger, Bello Vino, and the hardware store, short walking distance to Northside Liquor, and close to the #2 to get downtown and the blue buses, which run until 2-3am. I lived up north for five years, happily car-free. A mecca of entertainment options it was not, and I’d certainly like to see the real estate along Fuller and Plymouth used better, but it wasn’t a bad place to live.
posted by Murph on November 27th, 2005 at 2:21 pmI guess I’m just a snob when it comes to such things. I need my effin’ urbanism and nightlife within walking distance. Sure, you could feasibly live up there… but I wouldn’t.
posted by Brandon on November 27th, 2005 at 2:41 pmIt’s not just that North Campus is unwalkable, it’s that there is a North Campus, two and a half miles from the main campus, in the first place.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on November 27th, 2005 at 2:43 pmI was at State and William just after sunset. I noticed two buildings — larger than the existing buildings around them — going up farther north on State and a little to the east. My initial reaction was, “Are those UFOs?” Then, when I was sure they were buildings, I thought, “How did that happen?”
posted by A Different Jon on November 27th, 2005 at 2:53 pmAlso, what is this “Corner House”? In my day “Corner House” was the student place at East U. and Willard.
posted by A Different Jon on November 27th, 2005 at 3:51 pmI’m surprised there hasn’t be an FPP on this month’s Observer article about density v. NIMBY.
posted by Mike B on November 27th, 2005 at 5:16 pmPatience, patience. The salt pig news had to take priority.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on November 27th, 2005 at 5:20 pmSo, I admit that my standards for “walking distance” are much more forgiving than most - my standard footwear is hiking boots for a reason - but in my years living near north campus, I stumbled home from “nightlife” many a time quite pleasantly. From the Heidelberg, it’s pretty much a straight shot up Beakes/Broadway, and you’re home in 20 minutes. Quite tolerable, with company, in a post-night life state. From further east, I had a pretty good straight-line overland route that cut through the hill area dorms, past the helipad, through the Arb parking lot, over the tracks, across the soccer fields, up Cedar Bend (the one off Fuller), up the trails through the woods, and across the Baits parking lot. A little longer, and a little more adventurous, but not bad.
My point - yeah, Brandon, you’re just a snob.
posted by Murph on November 28th, 2005 at 11:30 pmMurph, Both of those routes wouldn’t be smart for women at night, especially alone. So, basically you’re talking about a place that’s for around 50% of people, is only walkable 50% of the time (and the latter, probably never safe for a woman alone).
posted by Anna on November 29th, 2005 at 10:26 am“So, basically you’re talking about a place that’s for around 50% of people, is only walkable 50% of the time (and the latter, probably never safe for a woman alone).”
My wife sometimes takes both of those routes, or used to–the train people are extremely unhappy about people crossing the tracks, and she’s stopped taking that route. She *does* worry about safety on these routes, but it’s an exaggeration declare them completely unwalkable.
So while I understand the concern, I think safety is more than just a black-or-white, safe-or-unsafe question. I’d be interested in any attempts to really quantify the risk.
I walk home from work after dark frequently (2.5 miles from the Old West Side to the north end of Broadway) and it doesn’t strike me as particularly “unsafe”, for what that’s worth.
posted by Bruce Fields on November 29th, 2005 at 11:11 amI can’t remember your history, Bruce, but my impression is that you’re a long-time Ann Arbor resident — all of the places you’re talking about are places where women have been raped in the last 10-12 years. I suppose I could be usually risk-averse, but personally, I would *never* do that arb/traintracks walk alone. Maybe I was too shaped by the serial rapist, but that is just way too isolated and risky for me. Quantify the risk? I dunno, how ’bout looking at violent crime stats? It’s easy to quantify risk, what’s not easy to quantify is risk-tolerence. BTW, every time there’s a violent attack on women, the first thing people do is say, “When there are other options (by that they usually mean either motorized transportation or an escort of some kind), why was she walking alone at night?” Often it’s the same people who would otherwise have claimed that it’s “not particularly dangerous.”
posted by Anna on November 29th, 2005 at 11:25 amer, I meant “unusually risk-averse” not “usually risk-averse”.
posted by Anna on November 29th, 2005 at 11:29 amI agree with Anna.
posted by Joy on November 29th, 2005 at 11:49 am“all of the places you’re talking about are places where women have been raped in the last 10-12 years.”
You also use crosswalks where pedestrians have been hit in the last 10 years and, if you drive, nearly every intersection you cross has probably been the site of a car accident.
So all of us do resign ourselves to *some* level of risk. It would be interesting to attempt to compare. The accident and violent crime statistics might be easy enough to find, but it would be hard to translate those into a measurement of risk along a certain route–for that you’d have to estimate how many people travel that route every year, etc. But maybe we could figure out something useful.
My intuition would have been that the contribution to those risk calculations from the headline-featured rapes over the last decade would be rather small compared to risks from traffic, but I don’t know.
posted by Bruce Fields on November 29th, 2005 at 11:57 amWell, the Observer crime map has two stranger sexual assaults this month, and I don’t remember either of them in the headlines. And I think that’s consistent with other months.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on November 29th, 2005 at 12:28 pmI don’t think you can compare the risk of being hit by a car versus the risk of being sexually assaulted. I don’t know about you, but I probably will get over a broken arm from a car accident a lot easier than having an undesired object inserted into various orifices.
posted by JCP2 on November 29th, 2005 at 12:37 pmYeah, I’ve always surprised at how few sexual assaults actually make it into a news story in AA — one that I was witness to (on South Division, a woman attacked with pepper spray and sexually assaulted at around 12 AM) never saw the light of print in either the AA News or the Michigan Daily. Beside, there is a huge difference between being afraid to leave your house for fear of being hit by a car and not wanting to walk in dark and isolated areas for fear of being assaulted. I would bet that if you look at the number of women who’ve walked alone through the arb at night (small) versus the number who have been assaulted, the percentage would actually be quite a bit higher than the number of people struck crossing S. Division near E. Univ (two of any seriousness in my memory, versus thousands of crossings per day). Of course, like Bruce, I’m just speculating.
posted by Anna on November 29th, 2005 at 12:40 pmJust out of curiosity, does anyone remember any of these making it into the AA News?
Sexual Assault 400 Block of N. Main 9-29-05 (Midnights)
The victim was walking home on the 400 Block of N. Main when she was approached from behind by the suspect. The suspect grabbed her. The victim screamed and began to fight to get away from the suspect.
Sexual Assault 1000 Block of Church St 9-23-05 (Midnights)
The victim was walking, visibly upset and crying when the suspect approached her.
The suspect asked if she was okay and put one of his hands on her in a sexual
manner and told her that, “Everything will be alright hunny.” The victim screamed and
started running toward her boyfriend’s house. The suspect did not follow her.
Assault with intent to Rape 1400 Block of Hill St 9-23-05 (Midnights)
Victim was walking on Hill St, one or two blocks west of Washtenaw, when she
passed a row of bushes. Someone yelled hey from the bushes. The subject then
jumped out of the bushes and pushed her to the ground. He held her down on the
ground and attempted to pull up her skirt. The victim began to kick, hit, and flail about
in an attempt to get the subject off her. The subject jumped off her and began running
away E/B on Hill St towards Washtenaw. Dispatch did receive a call from a witness at
approximately 0224 hrs that a B/M had been holding a female down on the street then
got up and ran.
Sexual Assault Bandemer Park 9-22-05(Afternoons)
posted by Anna on November 29th, 2005 at 1:21 pmOn the 23rd, the victim had finished practice with her crew team early and was sitting
alone when the suspect approached her. The suspect attempted to engage her in
conversation, but the victim would not reciprocate. The suspect grabbed hold of the
victim and dragged her approximately 50-70 feet away from her original location, just
east of railroad tracks. He began to sexually assault her, she fought back and was
able to run away and hide.
I think maybe I should buy some pepper spray, what with the nocturnal studying habits and hitting bars until closing.
Thanks for that, Anna. It’s not the nicest thing to know, but I suppose I’d rather be well informed than naive. Rather, I knew the numbers from Ann Arbor’s Friendly Observer Crime Map, but details are always sparce. The crime notice postings UM used to put up in the dormitories seemed to have more information than the News or Daily ever did.
posted by Jen on November 29th, 2005 at 2:53 pmIt’s notable that they all got away. I think the take-home is that you should fight like fucking hell if anyone ever tries anything like that.
posted by Anna on November 29th, 2005 at 3:18 pmAgreed, Anna. “Don’t resist” is bad, bad advice.
On an unrelated but also bizarre note, on Sunday night I had to pull a dude out of the street (Catherine), where he was lying totally blitzed in front of the car in front of ours. When a cop arrived, he recognized the dude so I guess, like, it’s not the first time he got drunk and blocked an intersection with his motionless carcass? Really, really weird.
posted by Dave on November 29th, 2005 at 3:34 pmWeird. I can’t imagine ever being that drunk — I’d be sick long before I was passed out on a sidewalk or (weirder) on a street. Altough in perusing the Ann Arbor Police’s website, I did find a really weird story in which a woman claimed she was with some guys drinking, and that she thought she was drugged because next thing she knew was hours later when she came to, lying alone in a parking structure soaked with rain.
posted by Anna on November 29th, 2005 at 3:49 pmTwo things:
(1) MSU’s campus is laughably bad in terms of its layout. Yes, the original buildings and much of that part of campus is beautiful. But the campus taken as a whole is a giant mess. Lots of colleges grow, including UM, and they’ve managed to keep things reasonably close together *and* well-integrated with the town.
(2) I’d be shocked if the new dorm had much of an impact on parking out there. Most kids still aren’t going to bring a car unless they KNOW they have a spot to park it. The only point to having a car is to drive to (a) north campus, (b) mommy and daddy’s house, (c) some colossal chain store to buy provisions like Funyans, Diet Coke, and 12 cases of generic “Ramen” noodles. The percentage of people who have a car among students in off-campus housing isn’t even too terribly high, so why on earth anyone would think that a dorm consisting primarily of first and second year students is beyond me. Most student cars parked on the streets are off-campus housing kids whose greasy landlords only gave them one parking spot for a house/apartment that sleeps 6.
posted by Evan on November 29th, 2005 at 3:54 pmYeah, I’ve seen drunks — and even been one. But never someone this trashed. I’d have to think I would have poisoned myself to death before I could reach this dude’s level.
posted by Dave on November 29th, 2005 at 4:24 pmBack to couches for a minute. I wholeheartedly agree with Kozzie’s sarcastic point
>Of all the things, it’s the porch couch that make the >student area look like a ghetto. He forgot to mention the >houses that haven’t been painted in years, broken >windows, cracked sidewalks, etc. But I guess those things are all student’s fault, right?
Bad to focus on couches. They are not hurting anyone. They are old and tired. I enjoy their timelessness. Reminds me of the days when I would lie on them after a night of partying (I got out of the street and hobbled to that nearest couch).
Re: Cars for dormers. Geez…I think I’m too old to even GO there. Why? Why I ask? The “U” had better acquire more land for a garage if this is going to be an issue. But 1 student out of 36 (despite the small> sample) is…too soon to tell.
posted by AJ on November 29th, 2005 at 6:40 pmLying down on the street in an intersection? And if the cops knew him? My guess, without really knowing anything about the situation, is that this dude wanted to get hit and sue.
posted by Steve on November 30th, 2005 at 11:12 am…I think it more likely that the guys is simply batshit insane.
posted by OFWinsurgent on November 30th, 2005 at 11:16 amNo, he was totally blitzed. However, I would guess there is a good chance that he is batshit insane when he’s sober. If he’s ever sober.
posted by Dave on November 30th, 2005 at 6:09 pm…that’s what I meant.
posted by OFWinsurgent on November 30th, 2005 at 6:31 pm